Only last year, Time magazine named technoking, Elon Musk, as ‘Person of the Year’, citing his contributions as an epitome of digital transformations weidling impacts from the planet’s streets with his electric cars to space with his SpaceX rockets. Musk’s rise to stardom coincides with futuristic trends seeking for a better tomorrow, a trait that most names in the hall of fame share. Even today, the saga of Steve Jobs resonates across the Apple sphere that blossomed from a garage to being a globally recognized tech giant of today. Every entrepreneurial story has had its fair share of sugar and spice and probably a little bit of intentional or unintentional addition of Chemical X (can be a success mantra or a special element of driving force). Therefore, movies are one medium that has made most people feeling inspired. Here are five movies that not only show how to be the Alpha in one’s business, but in making his/her business the Alpha of the industry.
The Pursuit of Happyness
This is the remarkable tale of Chris Gardner (Will Smith), a struggling salesman who loses everything, including his wife, home, and money. Rather than dwell in self-pity and failure, Chris picks himself up and works harder and smarter than his competitors to improve his and his son's lives. It's a moving motivational film based on a true story that will give you goosebumps and help you understand the importance of having a positive attitude and a strong work ethic in the quest of happiness and a better life.
“Don't ever let someone tell you, you can't do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you got to protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you you can’t do it. You want something, go get it. Period.”
The film is inspiring in many ways, but there are numerous lessons to be learned from Chris' tale for any aspiring entrepreneurs who have seen it. In the film, there are scenes where he is forced to sleep in a train restroom one night, but he still makes an attempt in front of his son to pretend that things aren't as bad as they are to keep him happy. Not only that, but he also has to sell his scanners to make ends meet while enrolling in a full-time internship, caring for his son, and finding a place to stay for the night.
The Wolf of Wall Street
The Wolf of Wall Street was a box office success. People praised the film as well as Jordan Belfort, the protagonist. This film may not have garnered Leonardo Di Caprio an Academy Award for his portrayal of Jordan Belfort, but it does teach a few significant lessons about success, fame, riches, greed, and respect for the law. People who work for Jordan Belfort in the film are willing to put their lives on the line for him. One of the reasons is that the office atmosphere they established was quite fraternal. Jordan Belfort took a chance on a few employees who were in desperate need of help. He made judgments based on personality and work ethic, regardless of previous wrongdoing or lack of expertise.
Another important takeaway from the film was the importance of sacrifice. When Belfort got involved with Wall Street, he transformed into a completely different person. It's all the more convenient to make poor decisions in the pursuit of immediate enjoyment. Entrepreneurs who are able to avoid these inclinations are the most successful. The idea is to make mindful, healthy decisions on a regular basis. The Wolf of Wall Street is a good reminder of how not to take yourself too seriously in life. So many irrational decisions were taken by Belfort and Stratton Oakmont. While they paid the price for their decisions, which was far from ideal, they also had a great time.
The Social Network
Mark Zuckerberg is presented as a self-important, sarcastic person in the film. But guess what? Success depends on one's ability to think well of oneself. Well that doesn’t necessarily mean being mean or ignorant of others’ well-being, but it’s about being confident. He became preoccupied with making money as soon as Facebook was up and running. Instead of concentrating on the product, he began to concentrate on the profit. His plan was to monetize the successful website by selling advertising space. Mark, on the other hand, was against this idea, believing that advertising would dilute Facebook's ‘cool’. The conflict among the different so-called co-founder's of Facebook presented in the movie display the need of hiring a lawyer early on. Take the initiative and pay the money to be properly established with an ironclad operating agreement, partnership agreement, or by-laws that will control what happens once the cash starts flowing.
The Pirates of Silicon Valley
The Pirates Of Silicon Valley depicts the spectacle of concurrency as well as the rise and fall of these two well-known personalities, with a focus on the former. It chronicles the early years of the computer industry through a battle between Microsoft and Apple. One of the most stunning aspects of the film was its depiction of the folly, incompetence, and inefficiency of several large corporations that failed to keep up with technological advancements at the time. Steve Jobs was an outspoken competitor. He saw IBM as his biggest competitor from the beginning of his career as a technopreneur.
Steve Wozniak once said, “I used to think that maybe Steve was born obsessed with wiping out IBM”.
Jobs' love and zeal for creating anything in the world of computers was one of the most important factors in his success. It is nearly difficult for a person to achieve something he does not enjoy. Even as a child, Steve Jobs was constantly investigating, learning, and interpreting new things from the ground up. He had several rejections and failures in his life. Nothing, on the other hand, could stop him from doing the things he truly enjoyed. It was due to this that Steve fabricated the Apple NeXT even after being fired from his own firm, Apple, for his abrasive behaviour.
The Godfather Trilogy
The Godfather trilogy is arguably the best film for entrepreneurs of all time, emphasizing the need of creating relationships and networks, how helping people leads to strong business, and how understanding competition is non-negotiable. It depicts the establishment of Don Vito Corleone's economic empire, a poor Sicilian immigrant in New York, in between the violence, murder, and beheaded horses. Don Corleone employs strong man management abilities – and a little boardroom bullying – to establish the United States' largest olive oil corporation, with off-balance sheet activities in gambling, racketeering, and corruption.
Don Corleone may not win any honours for external communication or corporate social responsibility, but his operational success is based on a strong corporate hierarchy and smooth internal communication. Corleone urges his most senior managers to pursue any new business prospects that arise in order to foster a culture of change. Despite the fact that Corleone Inc is a private firm and a family business, the position of Don is not always passed down from father to son. The Corleone family makes business decisions based on logic and research. When the market turns against them, they do not panic.
There are many movies that serve important lessons about what it takes to make it to the top. The road to success is undoubtedly nutty-putty, while the same, it’s important to have a mix of the good and a little bit of evil to one’s personality.
But let’s face it, managing a business is really difficult. As a result, it is critical to have joy in the journey. Constant anxiety only adds to the difficulty.